With the future of Braden Airpark in doubt, its longtime operator has decided to fly the coop.

Moyer Aviation is ending its 16-year run of operating the Forks Township airfield on April 30, and will move its flight school and charter service to Pocono Mountains Municipal Airport, Coolbaugh Township, Monroe County.

Vern Moyer's decision comes as the cash-strapped Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority considers whether to close the 75-year-old small plane airfield to sell it. Moyer's departure is not expected to impact the 61 planes that are housed there.

"We've had a good run at Braden and we'll miss being there," said Moyer, president of Moyer Aviation. "But we have to look out for our own future."

And the future at Braden is very much in doubt.

Moyer Aviation's lease for running the 80-acre airfield on Sullivan Trail ran out in September.

It's been operating on a month-to-month lease since then, largely because the airport authority is trying to find a way to pay off the remaining $14 million of a $26 million court judgment against it for taking a developer's land in the early 1990s.

It has hired New York-based real estate developers, the Rockefeller Group, to determine which of its assets can be sold to raise money. Though Rockefeller has not issued its report on what it would offer to buy and develop, its has told authority officials that it will not purchase Braden.

"Everything is on the table, including Braden Airpark," Everett said. "When Moyer Aviation leaves, Braden Airpark will remain open and the authority will run it until it can be determined how to proceed from there."

The authority has decided against selling Queen City Airport — the small plane airfield in south Allentown — because of federal restrictions. The authority did recently use a $1.2 million state grant to build a new fuel facility at Braden, and some or all of that money would have to be repaid if the airport was closed.

However, Everett said Braden Airpark is not in the federal airport system and there are few other restrictions preventing its closure and sale.

That uncertainty led Moyer to look at other options. At Pocono Mountains, he's been given a three-year lease with two five-year options that could extend the lease to 13 years, Moyer said. Though he won't be running the entire airport operation, its two runways of more than 4,000 feet give his charter business more options, compared to Braden's single runway of 1,956 feet.

Moyer Aviation has been paying the authority $56,000 per year to run Braden. The authority maintains the six hangars and small terminal building there, but Moyer Aviation collects the lease payment for the 61 fixed-wing planes stationed there. By taking over the airport, the authority will lose that annual payment, but will begin collecting the plane leases, Everett said.

Moyer also operates a flight school in which he has logged 1,500 to 2,000 hours of instruction a year, and he has also run charter flights. He said much of that will simply move to Pocono Mountains Municipal, and most of the 12 full- and nine part-time workers have agreed to go with him.

At least for now, the change will mean little for the pilots whose planes are stationed at Braden. The fuel pumps have always been self-serve and the airport will soon be manned full-time by an authority employee.

Most local pilots are rooting for it to remain an airport, including Paul Braden. Braden not only shares a plane at the airfield with three other pilots, but his father Edwin opened the airport in 1938. His family ran it for decades, several times rejecting offers to sell it to Lafayette College, before the Bradens sold it to the authority in 1999.

"Obviously, we'd like to see it stay an airport, but we really don't have a say in that anymore," said Braden, who is a Lutheran minister in Easton. "If it closes, I guess we'd move our plane to Queen City Airport, but it wouldn't be the same."

Authority Chairman Tony Iannelli said though it's not clear whether Braden will be sold, the departure of Moyer removes at least one barrier.

"Well, at least it would be one less angry person among what would be a long list of angry people if we decided to close it," Iannelli said.